Student Perspectives on Writing Surveillance: Balancing AI Access, Academic Integrity, and Autonomy

How do students feel about the tracking and monitoring of written work to prevent academic dishonesty? Drawing on data analytics along with student and faculty voices, this session provides an in-depth look at how emerging writing software can discourage unethical AI practices while promoting AI literacy. This session examines our pilot designed to combat AI misuse while fostering ethical AI engagement. The platform is not an AI detector, but a tool to facilitate compliance with the faculty AI use policy. It is an assignment tool that captures student writing while giving access to integrated AI tools preapproved by the faculty. The student's behavior is summarized and then flagged for faculty to review for plagiarism or AI misuse. Controlled platforms create an opportunity for ethical AI use by tracking writing behavior and providing clear evidence of interactions. At the same time, they compel us to reflect on the trade-offs: what do we gain in oversight and accountability, and what do students lose in terms of their creative and personal writing space?